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TEC's recognition of McArthur aimed at
facilitating land settlement, says BIA
By Gary Blair
Minneapolis BIA director, Larry
Morrin says the reason the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe's (MCT) tribal
executive committee (TEC) finally
recognized White Earth chairman,
Eugene "Bugger" McArthur in Nov.
of 1996, although he had been elected
four months earlier: "They needed his
vote on the ($20 million) land claims
settlement," Morrin said Tuesday
during a PRESS/ON interview.
That agreement, if it had been
approved, would have settled the
tribe's claims against the government
for ancestral lands once owned by the
MCT. Since that time, tribal members
have asked the TEC to request that
their land be returned, in lieu of the
settlement offer. If the agreement had
been excepted, each enrollee would
have received an estimated $50 final
payment for the land. After attorneys'
fees and other expenses, $ 15 million
or less would go to the tribe, with at
least 20% allocated for "economic
development.
The present political controversy at
White Earth which led to the TEC's
Jan. 13, 1998 censure of McArthur
apparently was due in part to tribal
officials' attempts to get their hands
on the land claims money.
However, a Dec. 3, 1996 Interior
Department judge's ruling changed
McArthur's standing with the TEC.
IBIA Judge Katherine Lynn ruled that
McArthur and district III
representative John Buckanaga had
taken office too soon after being
elected, and by doing so violated the
reservation's election ordinance. Lynn
ruled that the 1996 White Earth
election was, "null and void."
It appears Lynn's decision did not
set off a movement to oust McArthur
from the TEC right away, even though
his vote apparently would have not
been accepted by the Interior
Department after their ruling.
Nonetheless, that decision has since
created turmoil on the White Earth
reservation, not unlike the days when
protests were launched against
convicted former chairman, Darrell
"Chip" Wadena. Today's "dissidents,"
however, are now referred to by the
McArthur administration as Wadena
supporters.
"I haven't received any different
information (about McArthur) from
the TEC since the time that they first
recognized him," Morrin added.
McArthur said on Mar. 24, 1998, at
a supposedly secret TEC meeting, that
he had followed all the rules of his
censure and had been vindicated by
other White Earth council members.
The TEC's Mar, 24th secret meeting
was held to conduct another vote on
the land claims agreement, according
to their meeting agenda, even though
the last vote to accept the settlement
had fallen short of the legal
TEC's/to pg. 6
Red Lake land claims settlement update, pg. 1
Family denied heat, elect, in WE power politics, pg. 1
Give Whitefeather time to reflect on past, pg. 4
LL candidate blocked from certification, pg. 4
Candidates meet in Duluth soup kitchen, pg. 5
Voice ofthe People
1
e-mail. pPBssoH@bji.net
Red Lake land claims settlement update
Red Lake election candidate certification by May 20th
The
Ojibwe
News
Fifty Cents
Native
American
Press
Ws Svmrt Eqnal Opportwty hr Al Pan*
Fen** B1888
V Issn
Mri3,fl88
By Larry Adams
The per capita payment for Red
Lake Nation members across Turtle
Island or North America might be
delayed until mid- to late summer.
According to the Red Lake Nation's
Secretary Judy Roy, the distribution
plan will be sent to Washington. "This
week, we heard they're [the Red Lake
Tribal Council] reviewing the
[distribution] plan and will finished
this week," Roy said.
From there, Congress has 60 days
to approve or deny the plan, Roy said
"if nobody objects, it's automatically
approved."
This is the last step other than
cutting the checks, which will be sent
from either Albuquerque or San
Francisco," said Roy.
For off-reservation Red Lake
residents, they can still send in their
off-reservation change-of-address to
the Red Lake Tribal Council's Collette
Maxwell. The reason off-reservation
residents can still send in their address
is that there are approximately 60
enrollment cases on appeal and they
won't be done for at least two months.
Also, Roy said that the distribution
of the $27,000,000.00 land claims
settlement will be an 80-20 percent
ratio. Each member can expect at least
$1700.00 from that payment
As far as the candidate certification
deadline on the Red Lake Nation is
concerned, the certification deadline
is April 20,1998. "We hope to get the
certification list by April 18, [1998.]
At that time, we'll officially certify
candidates," Roy concluded on who's
running in the primary elections for
the chairman, secretary, treasurer and
the district representatives of Red
Lake, Redby, Littlerock and Ponemah
on May 20, 1998.
1
A wnkly
Copyright Native Amricai Press, 1888
Lac Du Flambeau issuing state recognized
fishing license
LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. (AP) -
Under a unique arrangement with the
state, an Indian tribe hopes to raise
$100,000 a year selling tribal fishing
licenses that can be used on all off-
reservation waters in Wisconsin. The
Lac du Flambeau Chippewa band
planned a news conference at its Lake
ofthe Torches Resort Casino today to
announce the start of license sales.
Officials call the state's deal with the
Lac du Flambeau unique in the United
States. "It is the first Native American
Indian license to be issued with the
reciprocity, or same respect, that
another government's license offers,"
said Dick Matty, a spokesman for the
tribe. "It is a big deal." The tribal
license called the Ojibwe Nation Lac
du Flambeau fishing license results
from an agreement the tribe reached
with the state a year ago in a
longstanding dispute over tribal
spearfishing on off-reservation waters.
In exchange for $100,000 the tribe
expects to earn on fishing license sales
on the reservation, the Lac du
Flambeau agreed to set its spearfishing
quotas each spring low enough to
keep hook-and-line anglers happy.
That means at least a three-walleye
per day bag limit on more than 80
lakes where the tribe spearfishes.
Federal court rulings since 1983 have
upheld treaty rights ofthe Chippewa
to spearfish on lakes outside
reservation boundaries. The
resumption ofthe practice in the mid-
1980s led to complaints and protests
because the catch during spring
spearing cut the walleye bag limit for
hook-and-line anglers from five to
two on many prime lakes. A federal
judge eventually ruled that the state
and Chippewa must share fish
resources equally. The Lac du
Flambeau was the most active
Wisconsin band in spearfishing and
generally caught about half the
walleyes speared each spring.
Revenue raised from the tribal fishing
license which cost $ 14 for Wisconsin
residents and $34 for out-of-statr
anglers must be used on fishery-
related projects on the reservation,
said Steve Hewett, the state's treaty
fisheries coordinator. That means the
money can be used for such things as
stocking fish, repairing the tribal
hatchery or improving boat landings.
The tribe has operated a fish hatchery
since 1936. Craig Karr, administrator
ofthe DNR external relations division,
said a totally reciprocal fishing license
represents "good faith" by the state in
becoming partners with the tribe in
protecting the fisheries on the
reservation. For the state, the change
is another step in stabilizing bag limits
for hook-and-line anglers, which has
positive implications for tourism and
recreational businesses, he said.
■^ Submitted Photos
Art from the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana features from
left to right: "Peahmuska, A Fox Chief," an oil on wood panel by Charles Bird King and "Spring Arrival,"
a collagraph print by Gail Kirchner.
Family denied heat, electricity in White Earth
power politics
Testimony ends in Indian voting case
GREAT FALLS (AP) - Testimony
in a voting rights case ended Friday
and a federal judge will have to decide
whether a state commission attempted
to dilute the voting power of Montana
Indians or keep them from acquiring
it. The main issue before U.S. District
Judge Paul Hatfield is whether the
now-disbanded Montana Districting
and Apportionment Commission
violated the rights of Indians by
refusing to incorporate their proposals
while redrawing state legislative
districts after the 1990 Census. The
American Civil Liberties Union and
10 plaintiffs from five of Montana's
seven Indian reservations contend the
state commission violated a key
section of the federal Voting Rights
Act. The commission is appointed
every 10 years to adjust districts in
response to population changes.
Hatfield could uphold the state's
redistricting decisions or he could rule
for the plaintiffs and then decide how
to right the alleged wrongs. Assistant
Montana Attorney General Sarah
Bond argued Friday that at least one
of the changes requested in 1992 by
tribal leaders linking parts of the
Blackfeet and Flathead reservations
might have been illegal. She said the
proposal amounted to illegal "race-
based" districting, in part because the
Flathead Reservation portion of the
proposal didn't contain enough
Indians to be a majority district "unless
you borrow from the Blackfeet." Bond
told Hatfield that if the state took
Indian voters from an existing Indian
majority district and placed them in
another district, the state could be
guilty of truly "diluting" the Indian
vote. "Race can be a factor" when
determining where district lines should
go, she said, "but it can't be the
predominant factor." On the Hi-Line,
she said, the state panel rejected a
tribal request to link parts ofthe Rocky
Boy's, Fort Belknap and Fort Peck
reservations into a majority Senate
Testimony/to pg. 8
Tribe involved in Babbitt problems now
figures in land controversy
By Jeff Armstrong
Geeziss French points with pride to
a wood stove she received on her
daughter's first birthday, March 16. It
is a guarantee that her daughter and a
coming child ("due any day now")
will not have to spend another winter
shivering around a woefully
inadequate space heater.
The 18-year-old French and her
spouse, Gary LaGue, have had their
gas and power cut off since
September, when the White Earth
family moved into an Elbow Lake
four-plex. LaGue said his daughter
suffered through disease as well as
discomfort, as the temperature in the
unit hovered around the 60 degree
mark through a mercifully mild
winter.
"All winter long she was sick with
something," said LaGue. "We had to
boil water just to give her a bath."
Geezis said that although she is
looking forward to spring, the change
in seasons will brings difficulties as
well. The six-plug power strip
connected to the unit next door does
not provide enough electricity to
power the refrigerator. "I guess that
means no meat or vegetables," she
said.
Their makeshift power source is
barely sufficient to supply a single
lamp, the heater, electric frying pans,
and other essentials. The bathroom is
illuminated by candlelight.
The directive to unplug the young
family came from the Reservation
Business Committee, according to a
manager of Wild Rice Electric
Cooperative in Mahnomen.
"What is all boils down to is
permission from housing," said Wild
Rice office manager Tom Ryan. "If
[White Earth] Housing has a structure
out there, unless they tell us it's o.k.,
we won't connect them."
Ryan said the RBC's monopoly over
access to electricity is a normal
outgrowth of its "ownership" of tribal
housing. He said there was no
regulation preventing utilities from
carrying out arbitrary electrical
shutoff orders from landlords in order
to force the eviction of unwanted
tenants.
Housing staff member Virginia
Anderson defended the practice as a
necessary protection against tribal
members moving into homes without
official permission.
"That family is squatting. They
weren't authorized to move into that
unit, and they were not on the waiting
list," said Anderson. "It was one way
to get them out," she said.
"We didn't have anywhere else to
go," said LaDue said, explaining that
he first applied for a slot on the
housing waiting list four years ago.
"They said at Housing that I would
have to sit down with a representative
and see what happened to my
application, then they said there was
nothing they could do," he said.
LaGue said the homeless couple and
their newborn were not given priority
status for emergency housing or
offered any kind of assistance from
housing or tribal officials.
"They said they were going by their
new policy, that they have to go by
the list. Well, it doesn't work that
way," said LaGue, charging the RBC
with extending the entrenched policy
of nepotism.
He further alleged that the RBC has
assigned scarce homes to non-tribal
members at the expense of
Anishinabe families; "The
descendants (of tribal members) get
the homes and the electricity, while
the real Shinobs sit it the dark," said
LaGue. "Maybe it's to remind us who
were are."
LaGue said he was just one of a
growing number of tribal members
who have found that the only viable
way for those without official ties to
obtain tribal housing is at their own
Family/to pg. 6
WASHINGTON (AP) - Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt is faced with
another controversy involving a
wealthy Minnesota Indian tribe that
figured in the campaign finance
investigation that has ensnared him.
The state is fighting efforts by the
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux,
whose members each earn $600,000 a
year from tribal gambling operations,
to have the Interior Department take
into trust 593 acres of valuable land in
the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburbs. The
tribe wants the land set aside for a
shopping center and industrial
development. Local governments say
they would lose nearly $100 million
in property taxes over the next 12
years. The tribe is one of several that
contributed heavily to Democratic
causes after successfully lobbying
Babbitt to reject a casino license for
some rival tribes in neighboring
Wisconsin. Babbitt, who denies he
was influenced by the contributions,
is now under investigation by an
independent counsel for statements
he made to Congress about that
decision. In a meeting with Babbitt on
Monday, Minnesota Gov. Arne
Carlson said, he urged the secretary to
reject the land deal for the same reason
Babbitt gave for turning down the
Hudson, Wis., casino opposition from
the local community. "We're asking
for the exact same treatment that was
given to the Wisconsin situation," said
Carlson, a Republican. "The same
tribe opposed it on the grounds that
local units of government opposed it.
Well, we have local units of
government opposed here." A
decision is pending with the
Minneapolis office ofthe department's
Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under
federal law, the department can't allow
off-reservation gambling without
ensuring that the local community
won't be hurt. There is no such
requirement when tribes want to buy
land for other purposes, although the
Groups support each other's efforts to
change tribal constitution
Tribe/to pg. 6
NEW TOWN, N.D. (AP) - Two
separate groups are trying to change
the antiquated constitution of the
Three Affiliated Tribes, and despite
some friction, neither seems to mind
the other's efforts. "I think it's
important that we work together and
communicate," said Phyllis Cross,
who heads the 13-member
Constitution Revision Committee.
Created last fall by the Tribal Business
Council, it is holding public meetings
throughout the Fort Berthold
Reservation as it plans for a complete
revision of the tribal constitution.
"They're on the right track," said Tony
Mandan of the private People's
Amendment Committee. That group
has drafted an election petition seeking
constitutional amendments that
provide for the recall of elected
officials, referrals of tribal council
decisions, and a means to fill council
vacancies but not a complete rewrite.
Cross is not dismayed by the work of
the People's Amendment Committee.
"I think it's healthy," Cross said.
"They're just wanting to be more
involved and that's good." The tribe's
constitution was approved in 1936
and does not secure many ofthe basic
rights protected in state constitutions.
Tribal members want to be able to
recall officials, refer laws, have
leadership conduct itself under a code
of ethics, have open meeting laws,
have a binding document that spells
out cause for removal from office and
a judiciary that is not appointed by the
tribal council. They are ideas ripe for
the picking by a people who have
experienced corruption in tribal
government. A previous tribal
chairman, for example, is serving a
prison sentence for embezzlement.
GrOUps/to pg. 5

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TEC's recognition of McArthur aimed at
facilitating land settlement, says BIA
By Gary Blair
Minneapolis BIA director, Larry
Morrin says the reason the Minnesota
Chippewa Tribe's (MCT) tribal
executive committee (TEC) finally
recognized White Earth chairman,
Eugene "Bugger" McArthur in Nov.
of 1996, although he had been elected
four months earlier: "They needed his
vote on the ($20 million) land claims
settlement," Morrin said Tuesday
during a PRESS/ON interview.
That agreement, if it had been
approved, would have settled the
tribe's claims against the government
for ancestral lands once owned by the
MCT. Since that time, tribal members
have asked the TEC to request that
their land be returned, in lieu of the
settlement offer. If the agreement had
been excepted, each enrollee would
have received an estimated $50 final
payment for the land. After attorneys'
fees and other expenses, $ 15 million
or less would go to the tribe, with at
least 20% allocated for "economic
development.
The present political controversy at
White Earth which led to the TEC's
Jan. 13, 1998 censure of McArthur
apparently was due in part to tribal
officials' attempts to get their hands
on the land claims money.
However, a Dec. 3, 1996 Interior
Department judge's ruling changed
McArthur's standing with the TEC.
IBIA Judge Katherine Lynn ruled that
McArthur and district III
representative John Buckanaga had
taken office too soon after being
elected, and by doing so violated the
reservation's election ordinance. Lynn
ruled that the 1996 White Earth
election was, "null and void."
It appears Lynn's decision did not
set off a movement to oust McArthur
from the TEC right away, even though
his vote apparently would have not
been accepted by the Interior
Department after their ruling.
Nonetheless, that decision has since
created turmoil on the White Earth
reservation, not unlike the days when
protests were launched against
convicted former chairman, Darrell
"Chip" Wadena. Today's "dissidents,"
however, are now referred to by the
McArthur administration as Wadena
supporters.
"I haven't received any different
information (about McArthur) from
the TEC since the time that they first
recognized him," Morrin added.
McArthur said on Mar. 24, 1998, at
a supposedly secret TEC meeting, that
he had followed all the rules of his
censure and had been vindicated by
other White Earth council members.
The TEC's Mar, 24th secret meeting
was held to conduct another vote on
the land claims agreement, according
to their meeting agenda, even though
the last vote to accept the settlement
had fallen short of the legal
TEC's/to pg. 6
Red Lake land claims settlement update, pg. 1
Family denied heat, elect, in WE power politics, pg. 1
Give Whitefeather time to reflect on past, pg. 4
LL candidate blocked from certification, pg. 4
Candidates meet in Duluth soup kitchen, pg. 5
Voice ofthe People
1
e-mail. pPBssoH@bji.net
Red Lake land claims settlement update
Red Lake election candidate certification by May 20th
The
Ojibwe
News
Fifty Cents
Native
American
Press
Ws Svmrt Eqnal Opportwty hr Al Pan*
Fen** B1888
V Issn
Mri3,fl88
By Larry Adams
The per capita payment for Red
Lake Nation members across Turtle
Island or North America might be
delayed until mid- to late summer.
According to the Red Lake Nation's
Secretary Judy Roy, the distribution
plan will be sent to Washington. "This
week, we heard they're [the Red Lake
Tribal Council] reviewing the
[distribution] plan and will finished
this week," Roy said.
From there, Congress has 60 days
to approve or deny the plan, Roy said
"if nobody objects, it's automatically
approved."
This is the last step other than
cutting the checks, which will be sent
from either Albuquerque or San
Francisco," said Roy.
For off-reservation Red Lake
residents, they can still send in their
off-reservation change-of-address to
the Red Lake Tribal Council's Collette
Maxwell. The reason off-reservation
residents can still send in their address
is that there are approximately 60
enrollment cases on appeal and they
won't be done for at least two months.
Also, Roy said that the distribution
of the $27,000,000.00 land claims
settlement will be an 80-20 percent
ratio. Each member can expect at least
$1700.00 from that payment
As far as the candidate certification
deadline on the Red Lake Nation is
concerned, the certification deadline
is April 20,1998. "We hope to get the
certification list by April 18, [1998.]
At that time, we'll officially certify
candidates," Roy concluded on who's
running in the primary elections for
the chairman, secretary, treasurer and
the district representatives of Red
Lake, Redby, Littlerock and Ponemah
on May 20, 1998.
1
A wnkly
Copyright Native Amricai Press, 1888
Lac Du Flambeau issuing state recognized
fishing license
LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. (AP) -
Under a unique arrangement with the
state, an Indian tribe hopes to raise
$100,000 a year selling tribal fishing
licenses that can be used on all off-
reservation waters in Wisconsin. The
Lac du Flambeau Chippewa band
planned a news conference at its Lake
ofthe Torches Resort Casino today to
announce the start of license sales.
Officials call the state's deal with the
Lac du Flambeau unique in the United
States. "It is the first Native American
Indian license to be issued with the
reciprocity, or same respect, that
another government's license offers,"
said Dick Matty, a spokesman for the
tribe. "It is a big deal." The tribal
license called the Ojibwe Nation Lac
du Flambeau fishing license results
from an agreement the tribe reached
with the state a year ago in a
longstanding dispute over tribal
spearfishing on off-reservation waters.
In exchange for $100,000 the tribe
expects to earn on fishing license sales
on the reservation, the Lac du
Flambeau agreed to set its spearfishing
quotas each spring low enough to
keep hook-and-line anglers happy.
That means at least a three-walleye
per day bag limit on more than 80
lakes where the tribe spearfishes.
Federal court rulings since 1983 have
upheld treaty rights ofthe Chippewa
to spearfish on lakes outside
reservation boundaries. The
resumption ofthe practice in the mid-
1980s led to complaints and protests
because the catch during spring
spearing cut the walleye bag limit for
hook-and-line anglers from five to
two on many prime lakes. A federal
judge eventually ruled that the state
and Chippewa must share fish
resources equally. The Lac du
Flambeau was the most active
Wisconsin band in spearfishing and
generally caught about half the
walleyes speared each spring.
Revenue raised from the tribal fishing
license which cost $ 14 for Wisconsin
residents and $34 for out-of-statr
anglers must be used on fishery-
related projects on the reservation,
said Steve Hewett, the state's treaty
fisheries coordinator. That means the
money can be used for such things as
stocking fish, repairing the tribal
hatchery or improving boat landings.
The tribe has operated a fish hatchery
since 1936. Craig Karr, administrator
ofthe DNR external relations division,
said a totally reciprocal fishing license
represents "good faith" by the state in
becoming partners with the tribe in
protecting the fisheries on the
reservation. For the state, the change
is another step in stabilizing bag limits
for hook-and-line anglers, which has
positive implications for tourism and
recreational businesses, he said.
■^ Submitted Photos
Art from the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana features from
left to right: "Peahmuska, A Fox Chief," an oil on wood panel by Charles Bird King and "Spring Arrival,"
a collagraph print by Gail Kirchner.
Family denied heat, electricity in White Earth
power politics
Testimony ends in Indian voting case
GREAT FALLS (AP) - Testimony
in a voting rights case ended Friday
and a federal judge will have to decide
whether a state commission attempted
to dilute the voting power of Montana
Indians or keep them from acquiring
it. The main issue before U.S. District
Judge Paul Hatfield is whether the
now-disbanded Montana Districting
and Apportionment Commission
violated the rights of Indians by
refusing to incorporate their proposals
while redrawing state legislative
districts after the 1990 Census. The
American Civil Liberties Union and
10 plaintiffs from five of Montana's
seven Indian reservations contend the
state commission violated a key
section of the federal Voting Rights
Act. The commission is appointed
every 10 years to adjust districts in
response to population changes.
Hatfield could uphold the state's
redistricting decisions or he could rule
for the plaintiffs and then decide how
to right the alleged wrongs. Assistant
Montana Attorney General Sarah
Bond argued Friday that at least one
of the changes requested in 1992 by
tribal leaders linking parts of the
Blackfeet and Flathead reservations
might have been illegal. She said the
proposal amounted to illegal "race-
based" districting, in part because the
Flathead Reservation portion of the
proposal didn't contain enough
Indians to be a majority district "unless
you borrow from the Blackfeet." Bond
told Hatfield that if the state took
Indian voters from an existing Indian
majority district and placed them in
another district, the state could be
guilty of truly "diluting" the Indian
vote. "Race can be a factor" when
determining where district lines should
go, she said, "but it can't be the
predominant factor." On the Hi-Line,
she said, the state panel rejected a
tribal request to link parts ofthe Rocky
Boy's, Fort Belknap and Fort Peck
reservations into a majority Senate
Testimony/to pg. 8
Tribe involved in Babbitt problems now
figures in land controversy
By Jeff Armstrong
Geeziss French points with pride to
a wood stove she received on her
daughter's first birthday, March 16. It
is a guarantee that her daughter and a
coming child ("due any day now")
will not have to spend another winter
shivering around a woefully
inadequate space heater.
The 18-year-old French and her
spouse, Gary LaGue, have had their
gas and power cut off since
September, when the White Earth
family moved into an Elbow Lake
four-plex. LaGue said his daughter
suffered through disease as well as
discomfort, as the temperature in the
unit hovered around the 60 degree
mark through a mercifully mild
winter.
"All winter long she was sick with
something," said LaGue. "We had to
boil water just to give her a bath."
Geezis said that although she is
looking forward to spring, the change
in seasons will brings difficulties as
well. The six-plug power strip
connected to the unit next door does
not provide enough electricity to
power the refrigerator. "I guess that
means no meat or vegetables," she
said.
Their makeshift power source is
barely sufficient to supply a single
lamp, the heater, electric frying pans,
and other essentials. The bathroom is
illuminated by candlelight.
The directive to unplug the young
family came from the Reservation
Business Committee, according to a
manager of Wild Rice Electric
Cooperative in Mahnomen.
"What is all boils down to is
permission from housing," said Wild
Rice office manager Tom Ryan. "If
[White Earth] Housing has a structure
out there, unless they tell us it's o.k.,
we won't connect them."
Ryan said the RBC's monopoly over
access to electricity is a normal
outgrowth of its "ownership" of tribal
housing. He said there was no
regulation preventing utilities from
carrying out arbitrary electrical
shutoff orders from landlords in order
to force the eviction of unwanted
tenants.
Housing staff member Virginia
Anderson defended the practice as a
necessary protection against tribal
members moving into homes without
official permission.
"That family is squatting. They
weren't authorized to move into that
unit, and they were not on the waiting
list," said Anderson. "It was one way
to get them out," she said.
"We didn't have anywhere else to
go," said LaDue said, explaining that
he first applied for a slot on the
housing waiting list four years ago.
"They said at Housing that I would
have to sit down with a representative
and see what happened to my
application, then they said there was
nothing they could do," he said.
LaGue said the homeless couple and
their newborn were not given priority
status for emergency housing or
offered any kind of assistance from
housing or tribal officials.
"They said they were going by their
new policy, that they have to go by
the list. Well, it doesn't work that
way," said LaGue, charging the RBC
with extending the entrenched policy
of nepotism.
He further alleged that the RBC has
assigned scarce homes to non-tribal
members at the expense of
Anishinabe families; "The
descendants (of tribal members) get
the homes and the electricity, while
the real Shinobs sit it the dark," said
LaGue. "Maybe it's to remind us who
were are."
LaGue said he was just one of a
growing number of tribal members
who have found that the only viable
way for those without official ties to
obtain tribal housing is at their own
Family/to pg. 6
WASHINGTON (AP) - Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt is faced with
another controversy involving a
wealthy Minnesota Indian tribe that
figured in the campaign finance
investigation that has ensnared him.
The state is fighting efforts by the
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux,
whose members each earn $600,000 a
year from tribal gambling operations,
to have the Interior Department take
into trust 593 acres of valuable land in
the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburbs. The
tribe wants the land set aside for a
shopping center and industrial
development. Local governments say
they would lose nearly $100 million
in property taxes over the next 12
years. The tribe is one of several that
contributed heavily to Democratic
causes after successfully lobbying
Babbitt to reject a casino license for
some rival tribes in neighboring
Wisconsin. Babbitt, who denies he
was influenced by the contributions,
is now under investigation by an
independent counsel for statements
he made to Congress about that
decision. In a meeting with Babbitt on
Monday, Minnesota Gov. Arne
Carlson said, he urged the secretary to
reject the land deal for the same reason
Babbitt gave for turning down the
Hudson, Wis., casino opposition from
the local community. "We're asking
for the exact same treatment that was
given to the Wisconsin situation," said
Carlson, a Republican. "The same
tribe opposed it on the grounds that
local units of government opposed it.
Well, we have local units of
government opposed here." A
decision is pending with the
Minneapolis office ofthe department's
Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under
federal law, the department can't allow
off-reservation gambling without
ensuring that the local community
won't be hurt. There is no such
requirement when tribes want to buy
land for other purposes, although the
Groups support each other's efforts to
change tribal constitution
Tribe/to pg. 6
NEW TOWN, N.D. (AP) - Two
separate groups are trying to change
the antiquated constitution of the
Three Affiliated Tribes, and despite
some friction, neither seems to mind
the other's efforts. "I think it's
important that we work together and
communicate," said Phyllis Cross,
who heads the 13-member
Constitution Revision Committee.
Created last fall by the Tribal Business
Council, it is holding public meetings
throughout the Fort Berthold
Reservation as it plans for a complete
revision of the tribal constitution.
"They're on the right track," said Tony
Mandan of the private People's
Amendment Committee. That group
has drafted an election petition seeking
constitutional amendments that
provide for the recall of elected
officials, referrals of tribal council
decisions, and a means to fill council
vacancies but not a complete rewrite.
Cross is not dismayed by the work of
the People's Amendment Committee.
"I think it's healthy," Cross said.
"They're just wanting to be more
involved and that's good." The tribe's
constitution was approved in 1936
and does not secure many ofthe basic
rights protected in state constitutions.
Tribal members want to be able to
recall officials, refer laws, have
leadership conduct itself under a code
of ethics, have open meeting laws,
have a binding document that spells
out cause for removal from office and
a judiciary that is not appointed by the
tribal council. They are ideas ripe for
the picking by a people who have
experienced corruption in tribal
government. A previous tribal
chairman, for example, is serving a
prison sentence for embezzlement.
GrOUps/to pg. 5